


The Conspyracy

by Kynfylgia



Category: Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Humor, Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 14:38:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15390927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kynfylgia/pseuds/Kynfylgia
Summary: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a young farmer in possession of a friendly smile, must have a skeleton in the closet.





	The Conspyracy

“So, what are we gonna do today?“ Colin asked. They had met up by the lake near his family’s farm, like they often did, and Noelle had the biggest mischievous smile on her face which made him a bit apprehensive.

“We’re gonna be _spies_.”

“Oh, uh,” he said, and searched for words. “And who are we gonna spy on?”

“Vidian, duh. He’s _so_ mysterious!” Noelle almost burst with excitement.

Oh, yes, that should have been obvious. Probably. The new farmer was a _sensation_ around Westown. Colin didn’t know much about him. He only knew that he was somehow related to Farmer Frank who was their neighbour and he loved chickens very much. Colin knew that because he had told him so. Also he had a kind smile. Colin knew _that_ because he always had a smile for him whenever he saw him. Yes, he didn’t know much about him, still he had never thought of him as _mysterious_. “He seems nice?” he offered after hesitating for a moment. 

“Well, duh, but nice people always have a secret, and I’m gonna find it.” 

Colin pondered her declaration for a few moments. “I think you’re nice, too,” he stated. “Do you have a secret?”

Noelle blushed furiously. “I have one but it’s only a secret because you just don’t get it!”

“Um…” Colin didn’t quite understand, and he didn’t quite know what to say either. 

“Aaaaanyway. You coming with me?” Noelle watched him expectantly.

He nodded. Of course he would, he had to admit this did sound like fun. A bit scary fun – what if the farmer caught them? But fun nonetheless. And he knew from experience that there was no point in arguing with Noelle, anyway. 

“Great! Let’s hide over there.” She gestured towards the road. “But first, we’ll need these.” She produced two black masks shaped like an 8 lying on its side and gave one to Colin.

“You made these?” he asked, inspecting it carefully. It was made of black cardboard and two pieces of string on each end.

“Yes, but don’t worry, my mother didn’t see them, nobody knows. Can you help me with that?”

He wasn’t really concerned about this, but he helped the struggling Noelle fastening the string behind her head and got help in return when he had the same problem just a minute later.

“Now we look like _real_ spies,” Noelle exclaimed happily. Colin smiled back. “C’mon, let’s hide.”

They found a place between some bushes that was spacy enough for both of them and hid them well enough – Colin even crawled out again to check if they really couldn’t be seen from the road. And then they waited.

 

And nothing happened.

 

“Spies in the books always have codenames,” Colin whispered after a while. “Should we have one, too?”

“Good thinking, partner,” Noelle whispered back and scrunched her face, thinking. “I’ll be Secret Agent Elleon, then, and you can be Secret Agent Niloc.”

“Oh, so… just our names backwards? Um… isn’t that a bit obvious?”

Noelle crossed her arms. “Well, this is how they did it in _Undercover Adventures_ , and nobody ever found out who they were, _and_ I think they sound good. And we won’t tell them to anyone, anyway, because no one will ever see us, because we’re _sneaky_.”

Colin considered this for a moment, then nodded. A minute later he began to chuckle and quickly covered his mouth with his hands.

“What?”

“Oh, I just thought… it could be worse. I mean, Pa would be Secret Agent Rotceh, and Grandma would be Nagem. That sounds really silly.”

Noelle laughed and nodded. “And my ma would be Adnarim.” She thought about that. “That’s not too bad. But I like ours better.” She thought a little longer. “Ettesil.”

Colin smiled. “Knarf.”

“Darb and Eirrac.”

“Enyaw.”

“Ocram.”

“Rotcod Drof.”

Noelle burst into laughter, and Colin giggled too. 

Then his eyes widened, and he gripped her hand. “Shhhh, there he is!”

 

Anxiously they watched Vidian walk by; the farmer was whistling a merry tune and didn’t suspect a thing.

“Now we hafta follow him,” Noelle whispered.

And follow him they did, scurrying from one hiding point to the next, ducking behind rocks and bushes and the occasional cactus, until they entered Westown. Cowering behind the buffalo statue, they watched him doing his shopping at the market, chatting amicably with the vendors; then, when he took the western stairs to the upper levels of the town, they took the eastern ones and went into hiding under the cart that stood across the road from Noelle’s home.

“We can’t follow him in there!” Noelle sounded a bit frustrated when their target entered Lisette’s flower shop. “He’ll know something’s up!”

“We could look through the window?” Colin suggested tentatively.

“You’re a genius, partner!” They darted over to the window and stood on their toes to be able to see over the flowery decoration on the sill. “Aw, they’re just talking.” 

They fell silent for a while.

“They’re talking a lot,” Colin observed.

“Is she… is she blushing?” Noelle jumped up and down to have a better view. “She iiiiiis,” she squealed, trying hard to keep her voice down. “Next time we _hafta_ hide _in there_. Oh, he’s leaving, c’mon, he can’t see us.”

 

They hurried back to their hiding place under the cart. Just in time. The red dust hadn’t even settled when the door opened and Vidian came back out, looking even happier than before. His next stop was at Miranda’s general store. They chose the eastern window for spying and taking note of every item he took from the shelves, but they failed to notice anything unusual. When he finally left the store after a lengthy chat with Miranda, his backpack full to the brim, they hid behind the chopping block until he had descended the stairs, then they resumed their pursuit, sneaking after him all the way back to his farm, hiding in every shadow that presented itself to them.

 

“C’mon, to the window!” Noelle said when he vanished into his house and started off but Colin held her back.

“But what if he comes out again, there’s no good hiding place! We need a plan.”

Noelle gave in. “Whatcha thinking, where will he go next?”

Colin thought about that. “The chicken coop? He said he likes chickens.” He eyed the farm in front of them. The house was to their left on a slightly higher level, to their right were some plots where Vidian grew strawberries and a variation of vegetables, and right behind that was the coop. About a dozen hens were outside, scratching, pecking, perching and flocking together. “We could hide in the haystack?”

“We hafta be quick, though.” Noelle scrunched her face, then shrugged. “Alright, let’s go.”

 

They ran, not even pretending to be sneaky, this time, velocity was all that mattered. 

Hiding in the haystack was more difficult than they had imagined.

“I can’t see anything,” Noelle complained.

“I do but I think my face is peeking out,” Colin whispered. He crawled back a bit, got hay in his nose and sneezed.

“Shhh!”

“Sorry…” Colin wiped his nose with his sleeve and froze when he saw their target emerge from his home. “He’s coming!”

 

In the next quarter of an hour they learnt that Vidian liked to talk to his chickens, that one of his chickens was called Minime, one was named Minime Two, one was called Minime Clone, a very small one was named Microme, four others were Eeny, Meeny, Miney, and Moe, one was called Mrs. Bennet, and the rooster was named Larry, they learnt that he had bought treats for them because he wanted to make them happy – it seemed to work –, they learnt that he sometimes liked to just lie on his back and let the chickens walk all over him and tickle him with their feet through his thick working clothes, and they learnt that he was very polite because when Colin sneezed again he said “Bless you” instead of yelling “Get out of my haystack!” which had been a very reasonable concern of his.

“Whoops,” said Colin, thinking rapidly. “Um. Thank you?”

“Think nothing of it,” Vidian replied, plucked one of his hens from his chest, sat up and looked in their general direction; a smile appeared on his face when he recognized them. “Oh hey kids, what‘s up?”

Colin shot a glance at Noelle – oh no, he could see her now, the hay must have shifted when he sneezed, that meant Vidian could see them as clearly as they saw him – and reluctantly crawled out of the haystack, searching for words to explain the situation. Oh no, he’d be so mad. “Um…”

Noelle who was at his side in an instant interrupted him. “We’re not kids, we’re Secret Agents Elleon and Niloc and we’re here on a top secret mission!” she declared confidently, puffing her chest out.

Vidian smiled. “Alright, I’m sorry, must’ve mistaken you guys for someone else. By any means, carry on with your mission, don’t let me disturb you.” He gave them a wink and a wave and went back to caring for his chickens. “Although…” He turned back, motioned them to get closer and gave them a conspiratorial look. Lowering his voice he announced: “If y’all ever need help with secret agency matters… I’m not saying I know a guy but I totally know a guy.”

Colin and Noelle looked at each other, uncertain how to deal with this. 

“Yanno what, I’ll go get him. Will you keep an eye on Meeny here?” Before Colin could blink, he had a chicken in his arms and the farmer had jumped up and was heading towards his house.

 

“You scoundrel!” Noelle shouted and ran after him. “I know what you’re up to! You’re trying to destroy the evidence! C’mon, Colin, Niloc I mean, we hafta stop him!” 

Colin looked helplessly at the hen in his arms. “I… oh well.” He put her down carefully and watched her run back to her comrades, then followed Noelle as fast as he could. When he arrived, Vidian had vanished and Noelle was banging at the door.

“He _locked the door_! Can you _believe_ that? I _told_ you he’s up to no good!”

Colin decided it wasn’t the proper time to remind her that the only thing she said was that he had a secret. “Let’s check the windows.” 

They split up, Colin going to the left, Noelle to the right, peering in every window they came across, until they met at the back of the house. 

“Didya see him?”

Colin shook his head. “You?”

“Nu-uh.” Noelle’s eyes went wide. “We left the door unguarded!”

 

They raced back to the front of the house, right in time to see Vidian come back out, wearing sunglasses and a bow tie.

“There he is!” Noelle cried, ready to assault him at the slightest offence. “The _nerves_ of this man!”

“Calm down, Secret Agent Elleon,” Vidian said and handed them a piece of paper. It was a hand drawn, slightly faded ID badge that read _‘Secret Agent Naidiv’_. 

“Oh!” Noelle exclaimed. “You too! You _fooled_ us!”

Colin began to smile. “I think… I think we just accomplished our mission.”

“I don’t understand but okay.” Vidian leaned back on the doorframe, a mischievous smile on his face. “So, anything a seasoned spying veteran could help you with?”

The children exchanged looks and shook their heads simultaneously. They had discovered the new farmer’s secret. Their spying careers were over. Until the next mystery came along.

Vidian chuckled. “I see. Didn’t expect anything else from you. Keep up the good work, Secret Agents.” He gave them a double thumbs up.

“Well you _could_ catch that scoundrel Vidian for us,” Noelle suggested, shaking her fist. “I still hafta pick a bone with him!”

“Consider it done, m’lady,” the farmer saluted. “Love the masks, by the way.”

Noelle narrowed her eyes. “I’m still mad at you but thank you.”

 

When Colin got home later that day, he had the feeling they had made a friend. A friend that didn’t quite behave like an adult probably should, but he didn’t think he minded that very much.


End file.
